Clarence Percival Moody (11 August 1867 – 29 November 1937) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

newspaper editor, sports journalist,

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

historian and

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

player.''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 368. He made a significant contribution to the development and history of

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

.Hilferty, Tim (2022)
"Game on: a rich sporting history".
''The Advertiser''. Retrieved 10 September 2023. As a reporter he covered an Australian XI cricket tour of England in the early 1890s. At the first ever

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...

match, between

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, played at the

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

in 1892, Moody, for the ''

South Australian Register ''The Register'', originally the ''South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register'', and later ''South Australian Register,'' was South Australia's first newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836, moved to Adelaide in 1837, and ...

'', wrote that Ernie Jones, "Australia's first

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

", "bowled capitally in the second innings", adding that Jones should get stouter boots to prevent his left foot slipping when delivering. Having written for the ''South Australian Register'' under the pen name "Point", in 1894 he published ''Australian Cricket and Cricketers: 1856 o1893–94'', an anthology of the game in Australia, and which included a list of Australia v England matches that came to be considered the definitive guide to what constituted a Test match and helped establish

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

tradition. Over the next few years, he went on to write other books, including ''England v Australia: Cricket Reminiscences of Past Conflicts'' (1898), for which he was the

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

for

George Giffen George Giffen (27 March 1859 – 29 November 1927) was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia ...

's autobiography. In 1912, Moody set up three short-lived newspapers – the ''Sporting Mail'' (1912–1914), ''Saturday Mail'' (1912–1917), and ''The Mail'' (May 1912, with an initial run of 18,000), the latter going into liquidation in late 1914, and eventually being merged into ''The News''. After the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he moved to Sydney, where he continued to work in sports journalism. Moody married Eleanor Maud Barker in East Adelaide in May 1892. When he died in Sydney in November 1937, she and three of their children survived him, one son having died in the First World War.

Publications

* 1894: ''Australian cricket and cricketers 1856 o1893-94''. Melbourne: R.A. ThompsonLibrary.

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. Retrieved 10 September 2023. * 1898: ''Cricket album: noted Australian cricketers''. Adelaide: Hussey and Gillingham * 1898: ''South Australian cricket: Reminiscences of fifty years''. Adelaide: W.K. Thomas * 1890: ''The seventh Australian team in England, 1890: biographical sketches by Clarence P. Moody''. Wright: Office of Cricket * 1898: ''England v Australia: Cricket Reminiscences of Past Conflicts'', with

References

External links

''Australian Cricket and Cricketers: 1856 – 1893–94''.
at ''

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, Clarence 1867 births 1937 deaths Cricket writers 19th-century Australian journalists 20th-century Australian journalists Australian newspaper publishers (people)